Package for glasses or such fragile objects



INVENTOR.

C. BREEDVELD PACKAGE FOR GLASSES OR SUCH FRAGILE OBJECTS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 f g 9 1 m 4 Sept. 21, 1965 Filed Sept. 5, 1963 (gen/r1. r3 en-7v Sept. 1965 c. BREEDVELD 3,207,303

PACKAGE FOR GLASSES OR SUCH FRAGILE OBJECTS Filed Sept. 5, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

)4 Fol/ 7 United States Patent 3,207,303 PACKAGE FOR GLASSES 0R SUCH FRAGILE OBJECTS Cornelis Breedveld, Leerdam, Netherlands, assignor to N.V. Vereenigde Glasfabrieken (United Glassworks), Schiedam, Netherlands, a limited-liability company of the Netherlands Filed Sept. 5, 1963, Ser. No. 306,749 1 Claim. (Cl. 206--65) The invention relates to a package for glasses or such breakable articles, which package consists of a sheet of packing material, like paperboard, which can be folded so as to form an envelope of closed cross section and oblong parallelepipedic shape, each of two opposite lateral walls of the packing having recesses facing each other, and corresponding with a number of uniform articles of a set, which are to be arranged in a row in the envelope, said recesses having dimensions so as to permit the articles to protrude partially from the side plane of the packing, and for one part being bounded by a folding line of the envelope, a portion of the material of the packaging sheet cut away at the location of the recesses being left as a tab attached at the location of the folding line, which tab projects sidewardly from the plane of the packing.

Heretofore the tabs only offered protection for the edges of the articles projecting through the recesses as far as vertically approaching forces were concerned, because the tabs protruded over a distance which was less than, or equal to the distance over which the articles pro ected from the side-plane of the package.

It is an object of the present invention to improve th1s known type of package in making the protection for the articles which is offered by the enclosure, still more efficient without additional expenses on material or treatment and without impairing the property that the contents of the package are shown in an attractive way.

It is a further object of the invention to enlarge the rigidity of the wrapper and to attain an improved positioning of the articles inside the package, especially to reduce the possible lateral movement of the articles with respect to the package.

It is another object of the invention to avoid the use of special retaining means which were heretofore provided e.g., at the inside of the wrapper.

Other objects of the invention and the manner in which they are obtained, will appear from the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an perspective view of an embodiment of the package, comprising three uniform liquor glasses,

FIG. 2 is an end view of the package according to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 shows a blank of a package.

In the drawings the package, which may be made of paperboard, is denoted generally by the reference numeral 1. The package can be blanked out of a sheet of paperboard in a single punching operation. FIG. 3 shows such a blank of a package which substantially corresponds with that, according to FIGS. 1 and 2, though it is destined for higher glasses with a shape which differs from the shape of the glasses which are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. A blank consists of a top-portion 6, two side-portions 7 and 8 and the closing flaps 9 and 10. The latter constitute the bottom of the enclosure 1, when the blank is folded along the folding lines 2, 3, 4 and 5. The flap 9 is provided with tabs 11 and 12 which, on closing the Wrapper are inserted in the slits 13 and 14 respectively of the flap 10.

Each of the side faces 7 and 8 is provided with a plurality of recesses 16a, b, c and 17a, b, 0 respectively. After folding and closing the package, pairs 16a, 17a etc.

3,207,303 Patented Sept. 21, 1965 ice are facing each other. Through each pair of recesses, one of the articles 15a, b, c projects sidewardly from the side plane of the package. On punching out the blank, instead of cutting away all of the material, small portions 21a, b, c and 22a, b, c are left in the form of tabs which keep connection with the top-portion 6 of the enclosure. On folding the blank, these tabs keep projecting sidewardly as is represented in FIGS. 1 and 2.

In prior packages of this type, the recesses in the side walls extended over the entire height, so from the upper folding lines 3, 4 to the lower folding lines 2, 5. Such recesses allowed for a considerable movement of the article. According to the invention the portions of the material of the side walls 6, 7 which are left between the recesses 16a, b, c and 17a, b, c respectiveely, are interconnected by strips of material 25a, b, c, and 26a, b, c respectively, forming a continuous region, along the entire length of the package. Such interconnecting strips, even in case of articles having e.g. a simple cylindrical or conical shape, do not prevent protruding of portions of the articles, maintaining the property of good visibility of the contents, but moreover are advantageous in that the position of each article is fixed better in the normal position inside the enclosure. In prior embodiments of the package, the articles could move over a considerable distance out of their normal position, increasing the danger of projecting extremely far outside the enclosure and be ing broken by contact with any hard object or with other similar articles in storing them.

For certain types of articles, which in general must be such that they have at least one region with a smaller horizontal cross section, so that a body-portion and a foot-portion can be distinguished, like the stemmed drinking glasses represented, it is possible to shape the interconnecting strips 25a, b, c, and 26a, b, 0, so that their edges along the recesses correspond entirely with the shape and dimensions of the vertical cross-section of the body portion at the location Where the latter projects through the side-faces 7 and 8 of the package 1, as is represented in the drawing. This yields a still further improved positioning of the articles inside the wrapper. In the prior embodiment lower tabs 23a, b, c and 2411, b, 0 were left at the edges 2, 5 of the bottom entirely similar to the upper tabs. When providing the interconnecting strips as is described above, this means that in general a plurality of lower recesses is cut out. For the type of glasses represented, which have a foot 18, one may simply provide a number of cuts 19a, b, c and 20a, b, c to obtain the tabs 24a, b, c and 2311, b, 0 respectively.

As is clearly visible in FIG. 2 the outwardly protruding parts of the article body 15 and the article-foot 18 support the tabs 21-24. In this way the tabs are maintained 1n a perpendicularly projecting direction. In practice the upper tabs 21, 22 only tend to take up a position which is directed a little downwardly, because of the folding of the side walls 7, 8 with respect to the upper face 6. This is thus prevented by the protruding article portions. A similar consideration holds for the lower tabs 23, 24.

From FIG. 2 it will further be seen, that the tabs 21-24 project further than any article portion, so that they give a good protection for the article. Especially it is now possible to lay the package down on its side, without having the risk of breaking the contents.

What I claim is:

A package for a plurality of uniform, bulbous fragile articles arranged in a row, comprising a strip of foldable sheet material folded about said row of fragile articles to form an enclosing Wrapper of closed cross-section and oblong parallelpipedic shaped having flat top and bottom walls and flat side walls extending between and joined to said top and bottom walls at fold lines along the opposite side edges of the top and bottom walls, said flat side Walls having a distance therebetween which is substantially smaller than the maximum width of each of said bulbous articles, each of said side Walls having a first series of cutouts spaced apart along the wrapper and extending from the fold line at which the side wall is joined to said top wall, each of said side walls further having a second series of cutouts aligned with said cutouts of the first series and extending from the fold line at which the side wall is joined to said bottom wall, the combined heights of the aligned cutouts of said first and second series being less than the height of each side wall so as to leave a portion of each side wall extending cntinuously from end to end of the wrapper between said first and second series of cutouts, said first and second series of cutouts of each side wall being laterally registered with said first and second series of cutouts of the other side wall, the bulbous fragile articles protruding laterally through at least one of said series of cutouts in each of the side walls of said wrapper, said cutouts through which the bulbous fragile articles protrude being shaped to correspond to the cross-sections of the bulbous fragile articles in the planes of said flat side walls, and tabs extending laterally outward from said top and bottom walls in the regions of said cutouts and projecting beyond said flat side walls by distances greater than the protrusions of the bulbous articles through the cutouts so as to form a support for the package when disposed on its side, whereby breakage of the fragile articles is prevented.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,225,425 5/17 FOX 217-29 1,968,877 8/34 Cubberley 20665 2,765,073 10/56 Murray 20665 2,828,008 3/58 Fryburger 20665 2,990,997 7/61 Weiss 229 FOREIGN PATENTS 556,864 10/57 Belgium. 830,200 3/60 Great Britain.

THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner. 

